Matchbook Distilling, Field Trip After Dark Squash Amaro 187ml

Squash Amaro, 20% ABV

Long Island, New York, USA

Inside this bottle is a squash most of the world has forgotten. Sucrine du Berry — a winter squash listed on the Slow Food Ark of Taste. A catalog of ingredients and traditions considered worth saving: endangered, neglected, sometimes already gone.
Each year Matchbook chooses one ingredient from that list to make a spirit from. This release was grown by Treiber Farms on the North Fork — two thousand pounds of squash, mashed and built into the base of the spirit. Purple corn and Bloody Butcher for structure. Vanilla, cacao, chamomile folded into the ferment for warmth. Fortified with distillates of orris, angelica, cinnamon, rose, ancho, tamarind, sumac, strawberry. Macerated with fresh local figs, etrogs, cacao, chiles, fresh local shiso, gentian. Then left quietly for two years in Amarone casks — where the sugars deepen and the edges round. Finished with a syrup of cacao, more fresh local figs, toasted coconut, chamomile, and pasilla — a final layer of dusk.

Called Fieldtrip After Dark because that’s what it feels like: the walk home, the smell of the fireplace hanging in the air. Soil still under your nails. Smoke in your sweater. A nightcap of fortified wine and chocolate waiting when you get back. Slow Food speaks of breaking cycles of loss — saving flavors before they vanish into efficiency. This bottle is our small act in that direction. Agriculture as resistance. As embrace. Pour it neat. Or fold it into hot chocolate and drink it from a ceramic mug. Or mix it with some citrus and simple to break the heat, which we know is coming.. any day now.

Matchbook Distilling Co. is known for its experimental, ingredient-driven approach to spirits production. Matchbook is the brainchild of distiller Leslie Merinoff-Kwasnieski. She and her team produce an immensely diverse set of spirits built around the abundant produce of their local farmers. Founded with a focus on culinary technique and transparency in sourcing, Matchbook works directly with farmers, foragers, and producers to build spirits from raw agricultural ingredients. Located on the North Fork of Long Island, Matchbook operates as both a distillery and research-driven beverage lab, producing a diverse portfolio that includes gin, amaro, aperitifs, and specialty botanical spirits. “We think healthy, live soil produces the healthiest ingredients - and the healthiest ingredients produce the best flavor. We find endless inspiration in the history of how people have regarded spices, herbs, fruits, minerals - at once medicine, nourishment, perfume and flavor.”